Castles & Palaces
Soroca Fortress (Cetatea Soroca) on the Dniester River, northern Moldova — the round stone fortress of Stephen the Great

3 historic sites

Castles in Moldova

One of Europe's least-visited countries, Moldova preserves a dramatic medieval heritage along the Dniester River — most famously the round stone fortress of Soroca, built by Stephen the Great in 1499 and rebuilt into its distinctive circular bastioned form in the 1540s under Petru Rareș. Between forested valleys and river bluffs, Moldova's fortifications tell the story of a small principality that stood between the Ottoman Empire, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Crimean Khanate.

Mimi Castle (Castel Mimi) in Bulboaca, Moldova — the French-style wine château built in 1893 by Italian architects for the last Governor of Bessarabia, Moldova's only château-style wine estate

moldova · Anenii Noi District — Bulboaca village, ~30 km east of Chișinău, Moldova

Mimi Castle

Moldova's only château — built in 1893 for Bessarabia's last governor after he studied winemaking in France, designed by Italian architects, and constructed using the first reinforced concrete in the region

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Soroca Fortress (Cetatea Soroca) on the Dniester River, northern Moldova — the round stone fortress of Stephen the Great, rebuilt in its circular bastioned form in the 1540s, one of the best-preserved circular fortresses in Eastern Europe

moldova · Soroca District, northern Moldova, on the Dniester River at the Ukrainian border

Soroca Fortress

Stephen the Great's round fortress on the Dniester — one of the best-preserved circular bastion fortresses in Eastern Europe, built in 1499 to defend the Principality of Moldavia

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Bender Fortress (Tighina Fortress) in Bender, Transnistria — the 15th-century Moldavian fortress founded by Stephen the Great and massively expanded by the Ottomans in the 16th century, one of Eastern Europe's largest surviving Ottoman fortifications on the Dniester River

moldova · Bender (Tighina), Transnistria (Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic)

Bender Fortress

Stephen the Great's 15th-century Moldavian fortress, expanded by the Ottomans into one of Eastern Europe's largest surviving strongholds — inside Transnistria, the breakaway territory where the Soviet Union never quite ended

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